Its All Your Fault
by Rhi-an
Summary: Expecting an easy road in a relationship has split up Squall and Rinoa. They think that they'll put the other behind them but life it seems won't let them. *squinoa*
1. The situation

**Final fantasy viii and its characters are property of SquareSoft and I own nothing. I'm only borrowing them. ****J******

Prologue

            Rinoa looked up finally from her work. She directed her aching eyelids to the window- the blind she had forgotten to close swaying in the cold night.

            How had things gone so far? One minute she had been with Squall and their friends planning the present future for them both. She was going to stay in Garden and be with Squall. In her heart somehow she had thought it would last and they were perfect for each other.

            What had changed? Squall for one thing. More work, more responsibility and the novelty of being with someone wore off for both of them far sooner than they had thought it would.

            She slammed the window shut. The phone would ring soon, it always did. Selphie would ring every Friday to see that she was okay. Leaving as abruptly as she had done it was amazing that she had kept in touch with any of them at all.

It rang.

            Rinoa seized the phone eagerly, any break from studying was welcome and she settled herself comfortably on the bed as Selphie's chirpy voice began the usual greetings.

            "Hi Rinoa! How are you?" Before Rinoa could reply she carried on. "I've been pretty busy lately. Garden festival again- you won't _believe_ how many people've volunteered this year. Must because we're famous now," she laughed on the other end of the line.

            Rinoa let her continue. She needed someone to take her mind off all the horrible things that were happening in her life at the present.

            "… and Zell's going out with that Library girl, I can't remember her name and the Trepies are planning to sing to Quistis tomorrow when she eats lunch! I can't wait to see her face! And-"

            "Selphie stop!" Rinoa cut in desperately, she had to ask a question before she died with curiosity, "What's Squall doing? I don't want him to know I've been asking but how's he been?"

            Silence. Rinoa knew why, she had avoided asking for a long time. It was merely due to the fact that it had been four weeks they had broken up that day that reminded Rinoa of him.

 Then a much more sober Selphie began speaking again. "He's alright. He's been working a lot lately. We haven't really seen him." She paused in thought, "Are you okay Rinoa? I mean since you left it's been hard to know how you are."

            "Who wants to know?" Rinoa prayed that she had not been forgotten by the rest of the orphanage gang. _Please, please, please._

            "We all do Rinoa. We're worried about you."

            Rinoa smiled. The courses she was taking were long and boring and she was paid very little while she was on the job training. It also meant she had a lot of studying to do in the evenings. No time for socialising.

            "Are you going to come back Rinoa?"

            That left her surprised. Rinoa could not possibly consider what she would do at Garden if she did come back. The only reason she had stayed there in the first place was because Squall had been there. It would be wrong to stay amongst SeeDs who were trained or training to kill her- the sorceress- especially when her relationship with the commander had collapsed.

            It still hurt she realised. She had broken up with him because of stupid little arguments. Squall and Rinoa both were fairly new to relationships and it was a shock to realise how much work it had been.

            "Selphie, I can't come back. You know why."

            "You could. Squall's just being stupid. We'll vouch for you. We all want you back."

            "Thanks Selphie, that means a lot but I can't, I really can't."

            "If you ever-"

            "I won't."

            "-If you ever come back, we'll support you. You're our friend as well as Squall and he can't do anything."

            "The Trepies are gonna sing to Quistis tomorrow?"

            Selphie laughed. "Yeah. I wish you could be there, hey wait! I'll video it for you- that way you can see the look on her face when they start!"

            Good old Selphie. It couldn't entirely dispel the feeling that the rest of the gang found it awkward to speak to her. So far it had only been Selphie who had phoned her.

            After the phone call was over and they had said their goodbyes Rinoa turned back to her pile of work she had to study. _I can't believe what he's done to me!_ Suddenly frustrated she slammed the first book shut and realised she had not marked the page she had been working from. And it was a thick volume. She had to find it all over again.

            She almost felt like screaming.

_This is all your fault Squall!_

***********************

            Squall was up late again. He was sitting in the chair in the office accepting and rejecting candidates for SeeD training. It was alarming how many people had signed up as SeeD cadets since the defeat of Ultimecia. Maybe it was in the hope another sorceress would show up and they would gain glory and honour in defeating her.

            What was worse was the amount of cadets who had signed up for the missions that the orphanage gang went on. Squall was commander but he was allowed on ordinary missions like the rest of the SeeDs. He had been on several and grown sick of them very quickly. Many SeeDs had signed up; in the hope they could make friends of the five SeeDs and have some elevated status.

            _They aren't my friends and they never will be, _Squall thought irritably. All those people who wouldn't leave him alone, it was infuriating.

            "Squall?" He spun around, the voice not immediately recognisable. He became less alert when he saw who it was.

            "What is it Xu?"

            "Have you read through those papers I sent up to you?"

            "Yeah." Squall tried not to rub sleep out of his eyes, "There they are."

            Xu picked up the un-orderly pile of papers on the desk. Squall was tired. It had been several weeks since he had had more than two hours of sleep per night. It was catching up on him.

            Xu took a look at a couple of papers and examined them all. A frown crossed her face. "Squall?"

            "Yes?" He didn't bother to turn around.

            "You've filled in the wrong box." Squall turned round and looked at the box she was indicating. For the life of him he couldn't see what it was. "What?" he asked puzzled.

            "I said you've filled in the wrong box. You must have, this cadet will never make SeeD this year, he isn't ready. We can't stop them trying though." She was prevented from continuing when Squall snatched it out of her hands. He stared at it, the confusion becoming more defined on his face.

            Xu watched him calmly sit down and begin to correct the piles of forms he had filled. He was tired she could see; overwork had produced this effect. Sighing she attempted to take the forms away from him.

            Exhausted as he was he held the forms on the desk with a gloved hand. "What are you doing?"

            "Taking these," She managed to extract a few files from under his fingers. "You'll just fill these out incorrectly again and we need them as soon as possible."

            "What makes you think I'll fill them out wrongly again?" He stood up, "I made a mistake this night, I won't again."

            Xu snorted. A very un Xu-like sound. "Yes commander, you'll correct these without making any mistakes when you've not slept properly for at least a week."

            He frowned. _Who is she to tell me I'm tired? "That's none of your concern."_

            "Yes it is. I told you we need these soon." With Squall now out of the way she could pick up the remaining files. "Goodnight Squall,"

            "But-"

            "If you don't sleep properly for the next week I'll get Doctor Kadowaki to make sure you don't work for much longer." She saluted with her free hand and left the room.

            Squall was too bemused to salute back. He had been told to get some sleep. By _Xu of all people._

            _If she thinks she'll make friends with me as well she'll be disappointed. _He had had enough of people trying to find glory for themselves. Xu never spoke to him on a personal level. The way he had wanted.

            Sighing he headed out of the office to the elevator. He made his way around the large centre of Garden to the dorms. He had insisted on keeping the same room as he had prior to his promotion.

            In his room he tried to sleep but he had become accustomed to the prospect of Rinoa sneaking in when they had been together. The room reminded him of her.

            _Maybe I should have had the new room they offered. _He rolled on what felt like a bed impossible to sleep on.

            _She was like every woman I've ever become close to. Leaves when a few troubles come along. _He thought of the argument. What had it been about now? _It wasn't__ my fault._

He sifted through his drawer. A few things he intended to dispose of. He saw a few notes she had written. He almost throw them away in the bin. At the same time he was compelled to keep them. He couldn't let her go entirely.

            _This is all your fault Rinoa._

Another fic. Not planned, but lets see how it goes but lets explore the trials of a relationship. Nothing is ever simple and I don't intend this will be. I always wanted to write a squinoa! Here begins my attempt…


	2. Planning

Chapter 2

            "Badly planned aren't we?"

            Quistis looked at the forlorn team who were trying to think of ideas that would bring Squall and Rinoa together. They were both busy people and their schedules meant the ideas the gang had thought of would not work.

            "I don't know how this is gonna work," Selphie said frustrated. "They're both way too busy they'll never meet each other!"

            "I thought we said that we weren't planning a meeting for them but somewhere they 'bump' into each other," Zell said grumpily. He was forced into the discussion when he would have rather spent time chasing after the girl from the library.

            "Zell, try to think of something yourself." Selphie said, she had in fact dragged Irvine into the talk as well. He would have rather spent his time trying to chat Selphie or some other women up. But the power she had over him was incredible.

            Quistis knew better than to try to tamper with fate, and change to what wasn't meant to be but Squall and Rinoa were. How the two of them could fall out over such a trivial argument she didn't know. Sighing she cut through the silence.

            "Starting from the beginning, they spit up because…?"

            "Squall refused to kiss her in public."

            "Really? I thought it was because he wouldn't dance with her at that ball?"

            "No they split up after that you idiot."

            "Who are you calling an idiot?"

            "My invisible friend, who d'you think you idiot?"

            "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!!!!"

            "Nothing!" Quistis managed to out some authority into a command directed at Zell and Irvine that wasn't half as loud as Zell had been. "You two- we're trying to get Rinoa and Squall back together- we don't need you two behaving like children!"

            "Squall and Rinoa were acting like children too; they split up over a few silly arguments. About how Squall never shows what he feels in public. Rinoa felt like he was ashamed of her." Selphie had spoken.

            "But he wasn't!" Quistis felt like screaming in frustration. The pair of them sounded as though they had acted like a pair of two year olds. A wonderful relationship had been broken when they had encountered a few teething problems.

            "I think we need more helpers," Selphie insisted. Quistis sighed, this had been dealt with. They had asked Cid if he would send Squall somewhere if they arranged for Rinoa to be there as well. Garden however considered relationships a distraction for its SeeDs and therefore Rinoa had to stay away.

            It hadn't been Cid's fault entirely, although he had confessed that he felt it would be better for the pair to go their separate ways. SeeD left little time to pursue relationships and would lead in disappointment if the SeeD died in action.

            Selphie was thinking, she had her thoughtful face on. It lit up and she cried out with all the excitement of an inventor with a new invention. "We can get Kadowaki to help us!"

            Quistis was torn between asking Selphie what the idea really was or reminding her to add 'doctor' before it.

            "What are you talking about?" Zell asked incredulously. "How can she help?"

            Selphie jumped around gleefully. "We can ask her to send Squall of on a vacation to cut down his stress and we can send Rinoa to wherever he goes!"

            "Selphie you are a genius," Irvine announced tipping his hat in her direction.

            "Not such a good idea." Quistis cut in, "Rinoa won't have a break with this course she's on."

            "You're wrong, Rinoa has two weeks holiday coming up and she keeps saying we should meet up sometime. I can say it's a shopping trip in the bargain." Selphie said, excitedly waving an arm in the air.

            That was right Quistis thought guiltily, the short SeeD would know because nobody else besides Selphie had stayed in contact with Rinoa since her departure.

            "A holiday then?" Quistis asked, looking for everyone's approval.

            "Yes." They echoed each other.

            "Where do you think we'd go?"

            "Quisty!" Selphie exclaimed, "You'll come?" Without waiting for an answer she continued, "We can say it's a girl's holiday!"

            "Er, you guys need to ask Kadowaki if she'll prescribe a holiday to Squall." Zell said, "You don't know if she'll agree."

            "She'd better do." Selphie said, "How do we get Squall and Rinoa back together unless they meet?"

            "I'm sure you'd think of something Sephie." Irvine said smoothly. Quistis was reminded of the way he had tried to hit on Rinoa and a few SeeDs in Garden on arrival. Amazing Selphie wasn't more suspicious of him.

            Selphie beamed at him in any case. Quistis watched with an increasing feeling of nausea.

            "Hey if you guys want a girls holiday what about us? What are we gonna say to Squall? He sure as hell won't wanna go on a holiday with us. He's always saying how we annoy him," said Zell, suddenly regretting saying anything. He wanted to go to the library.

            "Yeah." Said Selphie with uncharacteristic doubt.

            "Hey we'll go with Squall whether he likes it or not." Irvine said confidently, "We'll sneak on the same boat he takes and by the time he finds us it'll be too late."

            The weather was taking a turn for the worse. Selphie looked outside. "I hate rain," She said- pausing to listen for the rain falling.

            "If there's bad weather it means that if we go to the same hotel there will be less opportunity for Squall and Rinoa staying away from each other." Quistis smiled. The plan would work, it had to.

            "Oh yeah and it'll be nice to have a holiday as well!" Selphie moved into a ready position to start running. "Book the tickets for us Quisty, I'll tell Rinoa about the holiday idea!"

            Without waiting for an answer she ran out of the room. With Irvine following of course, Zell stood up thankful to be able to get away.

            "Hey where are you going?" Quistis asked. "You need to ask the doctor whether she'll tell Squall to take a break."

            "But Quistis I need to see…"

            "Zell if you want to get Squall and Rinoa back together you have to make sacrifices. We all do, now please talk to doctor Kadowaki."

            Zell walked away annoyed and irritable. Sure he would be helping Squall and Rinoa's relationship but his own chances for one were low.

            _This damn well better be worth it._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            "A holiday! Wow!"

            Rinoa was delighted at the prospect of a holiday, she missed her friends, shopping and being able to relax.

            "So you wanna come?"

            "Definitely!" Rinoa couldn't imagine rejecting the idea simply because of her course. She could study a little while she was there if she really needed to.

            "Wow Rinoa this is going to be so much fun! Just the girls!"

            Yes just the girls, that was the main attraction for Rinoa. No Squall to aggravate her. This was going to be great. She was excited already.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            "You are joking." Squall stared at the doctor in front of him. She was serious. Her expression gave nothing away.

            "Squall do I look as if I am joking?"

            "I am not stressed!" He prepared to stand up from his chair and leave the infirmary. However her level glare and inner propriety in Squall made him stay.

            "I don't need a holiday. Least of all I don't need to leave Garden!"

            "Squall. I am sick of this if you don't believe my diagnosis why have me here at all. I clearly don't know my job and have told you a load of rubbish."

            Squall protested and she cut him off. "If I say you need a holiday you will have to leave your job for at least two weeks. You're not so important we can't cope without you. Now go on this holiday and maybe Irvine and Zell can teach you to have fun for once."

            "Zell and… Irvine?" His face drained of colour. He went white,

            "Yes. Now I have patients to see. Goodbye Squall."

            "But-"

            "Goodbye."

            He left the infirmary in a daze. This was too awful to be true. He was dreading it already.

Thanks for the reviews! I wasn't sure about continuing but I did again. Hiasha I didn't say because I wasn't sure I was going to write it myself until just before I did. ;)

I love Squinoas and I want to see more at fanfiction net. This is my contribution.


	3. Hotel Meeting

Its all your fault

Chapter Three

To be honest I didn't know I would continue this, I got a new review out of the blue and it occurred to me I was lazy and the sort of author who is terrible to read, because of slow updates. Thanks everyone! Although Ashbear's review was a big shock but perfect for getting me into writing. Here we go….

Hotel meetings.

            They had arrived at long last. It had taken Rinoa all of five seconds to be persuaded  to take a holiday with Quistis and Selphie. 

            Rinoa pulled a face, the last thing she wanted was to see Irvine and Zell turn up on holiday too, they had threatened to. Hopefully they were only joking.

            "Hey Rinoa we have to take our stuff up to our rooms!" Selphie called to her from the reception desk.

            _This is going to be fun._ "Okay Selphie, I'll come in a minute." She followed Selphie to the huge staircase. It was a beach holiday in Balamb. It had been Quistis' idea.

            "We'll be able to shop, stay in a nice hotel and have fun there." Those had been her words. It was strange, Quistis didn't usually seem to enjoy relaxing. No matter how she tried to persuade people that she was human like everyone else.

            _Unlike someone else I know, _Rinoa thought angrily.

            No, she wasn't on holiday to think about him.

            Selphie and Quistis were already in the room when she arrived. Selphie bounced on the bed. Quistis was neatly packing away her clothes and things.

            "What's the view like?" Rinoa asked, heading to the window.

            "Oh I don't know," Quistis said turning her head to Rinoa politely. "I didn't check it out."

            "Oh its pretty." Rinoa had been in the hotel before. But she hadn't seen such a nice view in many of the places she had been. She had spent much of her life at home in Galbadia. Then the rest in a train and then Garden. Out of those Garden had been the nicest for views. But she had left for a reason.

            _Stop thinking about him!_ Rinoa pulled her eyes away from the horizon and mentally hit herself. This wasn't the point of the holiday.

            "Rinoa?" Selphie stopped bouncing momentarily to watch Rinoa. "Is something wrong?"

            "Nothing at all. A bit of a headache from the glare. That's all." Rinoa congratulated herself for formulating such a good excuse.

            "What glare?" Quistis asked looking to the window. "The suns not out today."

            _What do I say?_

            Selphie giggled and stopped bouncing. She sniffed the air comically. "I smell fish!" She said excitedly. And dashed out the room; evidently for some food.

            "We all could do with some food." Quistis admitted. Facing Rinoa she smiled. "Let's go." She paused as Rinoa went to fetch her bag. "What are you doing?"

            Rinoa looked up surprised, "Just getting my bag."

            "Don't worry about that right now. I'll pay for you and if you really want to pay me back later you can. But let's go." Quistis steered Rinoa out the room. Rinoa's face wore a confused expression as they left the hotel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The journey was short, Balamb wasn't large and there were only a couple of restaurants. Mostly they sold seafood meals.

            Rinoa headed to fetch the menus. Selphie smiled, Quistis. "Did you see them?"

            Quistis nodded, "I saw them getting out of the car."

            "I saw the car before Rinoa turned away. Thank goodness she didn't see them."

            "She'll see them sometime." Quistis said wearily. "Is this really worth it?"

            Selphie looked at her in shock. "Of course it's worth it! We want to see them get back together don't we?"

            "Of course we do, but its no point letting them argue even more is it?"

            "Quistis I can't believe this! Please don't tell me you're not going to give up the plan!" Selphie was practically hopping on the spot. Drawing attention from passers-by.

            "Rinoa!" Quistis said happily as she returned laden with menus. Rinoa looked a bit grumpy.

            "Can we order now? My feet hurt after standing so long." She complained. The others complied to her request.

            "This place is really great!" Rinoa said enthusiastically. Perking up now she was sitting she chose her meal leisurely. "Hey Selphie, Quistis- what do we have to talk about now?" They looked at her quizzically. Rinoa sighed, "I mean girl talk. You know? Let's talk about girly stuff like…"

            "Boyfriends and exes!" Selphie said. Rinoa turned a bright shade of red.

            "Okay maybe not then." Rinoa said turning her chair away a little. Selphie leaned forward. Quistis directed a warning glance at her which she ignored.

            "No Rinoa- we should talk about that stuff. Like me and Irvine. How he gets on my nerves when he flirts with other women and then he tells me he's not flirting at all and he only has eyes for me!" She clenched her fist tightly. "I wanna hit him round the head sometimes!

            "Selphie, we should change the topic." Quistis said cautiously.

            "No," Rinoa said slowly turning around. "I never did say what really annoyed me about him." Selphie and Quistis looked at each other. They wondered what Rinoa would say.

            "He was cold. I knew that before I started dating him but you guys don't ever think you can change someone, you never can!" She glanced at the bar nearby. "How about some drinks?"

            Her friends nodded dumbly. Rinoa stood up and ordered some drinks from the bar. She returned with a few. They were the sort of drinks Rinoa liked. Selphie and Quistis found they couldn't drink any.

            That wasn't a problem. Rinoa consumed the drinks and more as she ordered some. She was very talkative though. About how Squall refused to hug, kiss or hold hands in public. How he had never taken a holiday off to spend with her. How he forgot her birthday, how he was a lousy kisser…

            It went on. Quistis and Selphie were finally sick of it. Rinoa was drunk and she could barely sit straight in her chair straight, let alone walk. They picked her up and paying for the meal they headed to leave/

            Then it happened. Quistis glanced at her watch as they started to drag Rinoa with them. Horror struck her. They would be arriving soon. Irvine, Zell and Squall- it had been arranged. Seeing Rinoa in this state would not convince Squall how much he missed her.

            They were close to the exit. Then the worst case scenario happened. Squall entered the restaurant, he was alone. Quistis found herself thinking about what she would say to Irvine and Zell for letting Squall walk around alone. Rinoa was dangling limply from between Selphie and Quistis. She looked pale and her face as though she wanted to be sick. It was instantly transformed when they locked eyes on each other however.

            The look on the old couple faces, of horror and anger and the disgust on Squalls added to the mix was not a desired result.

            Rinoa screamed and seized a nearby plateful of food from a guest's table and threw it at Squall. He was wearing black jumper and this did not help to hide the mayonnaise stains from the salad which now littered his shoulders.

            Rinoa stared at him. Looking surprised at first her face changed expression, and she giggled.

            Squall's face became even angrier and he turned around and stormed out of the restaurant. Irvine and Zell were still not there and the women were being told never to return to the restaurant again by the manager. Which meant they couldn't chase after him. Rinoa was still giggling. 

It was altogether a terrible day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So they left. Rinoa rushed to the toilet as soon as they returned to their room. They waited, ready for bed and feeling very low.

            "I can't believe today." Quistis mumbled at last. Selphie attempted hope.

            "Maybe Rinoa will have all her anger out of her system tomorrow."

            "Maybe not." Quistis said slowly.

            "We have to talk to Zell and Irvine tomorrow." Selphie said. "Why didn't they stop Squall?"

            "Because they're a couple of idiots." Quistis said angrily.

The room was silent after that. Except for the sound of the after-effects of the alcohol coming from the bathroom.

Okay… that was strange. I just wanted them to meet up and really I couldn't be bothered with the different viewpoints this time. Hope you liked this. It was short and I'm ashamed of it but I didn't want to drag it out because I couldn't come up with much! Please no flames!


	4. Hangover

Hangover

Rinoa groaned as she woke up and tried desperately to recall why she had a headache and what was wrong with her memory.

Sudenly in a jolt she remembered Squall showing up, not only that but what she had done… she couldn't recall exactly what she had done but she knew it was bad. 

          "Please no…" She murmured brushing a stray strand of hair from her face.

She looked in the mirror, actually a lot of her hair was out of place. She looked like she had had an electric shock and then had been shoved in a shower.

                    _Oh hyne…_ and then she remembered that she and Squall had split up mostly due to his uncaring behaviour. She- the miracle worker Rinoa had thought she could change him to the way she wanted and he had not made it easy. 

          _In fact he made it impossible she thought angrily. But she remembered with more clarity that she had thrown a plate of food at him._

          Cringing with disgust at herself she groaned and rushed to the bathroom giving herself a good clean up brushing her hair with such force it hurt, and giving herself a shower that lasted over an hour.

_          What must Quistis and Selphie think?_ She wondered unhappily.

          A sudden thought occurred to her. Why was Squall there?

  
          Selphie and Quistis were in Selphie's room talking about how they could salvage the mess. Not to mention discussing how much they had paid the manager not to throw them out of the hotel when in stormed a moody and hungover Rinoa.

          "Why couldn't you keep your noses out of it?!" Selphie and Quistis exchanged a confused look and Rinoa continued. "I mean we split up for a good reason and you two had to mess it up even more? I wouldn't have thought it was possible but you did!"

          "Hey!" Retorted Quistis, "we tried to help you two get back together- we didn't plan on having you throw food at him!"

          "Yeah and do you know how much we had to bribe the manager with so he wouldn't chuck us out? Huh?" Selphie bounced on the bed as if to emphasise her point.

          Rinoa turned red. It was something she could not think of without being embarrassed.

          "Rinoa," Quistis' voice had calmed down. "Why did you two split up? We never understood that- neither of you told us the reason."

          "We…" Rinoa was in tears, she suspected it was from the effects of consuming too much alcohol the previous night, "We kept getting annoyed with each other- we argued… she called me annoying and told me to leave him alone." With that admission she burst into tears and practically fell on the bed with her two friends comforting her as best they could.

          But the good news was that there was still hope. If they had split up over an argument maybe things could be fixed and put back as they should be.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­-------------------------------------------------------------

          "Awww Squall we just got here why don't you tell us what happened last night? Doctor Kadowaki won't let you back in Garden straight away either."

          "She'll have to let me in. I'm not staying here." Squall was stuffing things into a bag and he wasn't paying much attention to what went where which was not Squall's usual style. He had a meticulous order of packing and now to see this was a sign that something had happened.

          Irvine suspected that something bad had happened. More than that he believed Rinoa had been spotted. If so it meant the plan was messed up completely.

          "Squall man? Why did ya come back with food on you last night?" Zell enquired.

          "None of your business."

          "Chill man I was just asking!"

          "Hey Squall mind telling us what happened last night? I mean we're on holiday too we don't want to go home yet." Irvine took the cool approach. On seeing Squall hesitate, he congratulated himself, _you're a genius __Irvine__._

          "Saw someone I knew," That confirmed it. Rinoa had been spotted.

          "So we'll avoid them that's all, no need to get worked up." Irvined tipped his hat forward a little, "Who did you see by the way?"

          "Rinoa."

          They made to look surprised. Zell leaned forward, "What? But what are the chances of that happening?"

          "Well it happened and she threw food at me." Squall retorted, "I don't know what she did that for- I hadn't even said anything to her."

          "Maybe she was angry at you for something?" Irvine ventured.

          "Yeah I guess after what I said…"

          "What did you say Squall? I mean why did you split up? You never told us the reason."

          "I…" Regret crossed his face, " I had a lot of hard work that day and she was begging me to go to the new ball with her and I told her she was annoying. We got mad and we argued and…"

          He stopped and continued packing. He didn't look happy and Irvine looked at Zell. Zell was surprised to see a smile on his face. He didn't know Irvine knew that the break up was not entirely mutual and there was a chance. Slight but a chance.

All I can say in my defence was I got lazy and had writers block. I wrote this in the hope it would get me going again. If you want to review I'd really appreciate it. Thanks for reading. Rhi-an


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